


The Weed

by merlinus_ambrosius



Series: Fabled Spoils [4]
Category: Prospect (2018)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25212640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlinus_ambrosius/pseuds/merlinus_ambrosius
Summary: In which Ezra calls in the big guns, and a weed’s true nature is discovered.
Relationships: Cee (Prospect 2018) & OFC, Cee (Prospect 2018) & OMC, Cee/Ezra, Ezra & OFC, Ezra & OMC, Ezra (Prospect 2018) X Cee (Prospect 2018)
Series: Fabled Spoils [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820116
Comments: 12
Kudos: 11





	The Weed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irishleesh93](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irishleesh93/gifts), [alwaysupatnight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysupatnight/gifts), [redhouseclan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redhouseclan/gifts), [Ridingbycandlelight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ridingbycandlelight/gifts).



> This takes place the day after Part 3, “Beck.”

Beck had long since gone to sleep and Ezra was hard pressed to keep his own eyes open by the time Cee and Flutter got home the next night. Flutter was completely out, so Ezra carried her from the ConVe into the house. She didn’t even stir when he took off her shoes and tucked her into bed.

Usually Cee needed to decompress after a trip, so Ezra went to ask how it had gone. But she wasn’t in the living room, wasn’t in the kitchen, wasn’t in the bathroom. He checked Beck’s room. She had been there because the baby’s musical stuffed puppy was still playing, but she was gone. Puzzled, he looked in their bedroom and found her facedown in the bed.

That didn’t bode well.

“Cee?” He sat down on the edge of her side of the bed. “What’s wrong?”

“I am a _terrible mother, _” she said, her voice muffled.__

____

Ezra, baffled, gently rubbed her back with his good hand until he thought of something safe to say. 

____

“Well, Cee, from my perspective that’s completely false, but why don’t you tell me where you’re gettin’ that idea?”

____

She sat bolt upright. “Ezra, I should never ever have taken Flutter with me. What was I thinking? I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking I was soooo smart, and wouldn’t it be a wonderful bonding experience? What could go wrong? Do you want to know what went wrong, Ezra?”

____

He didn’t particularly, when she was in this mood, but he made a sympathetic noise.

____

“When I left her, she was with a girl a little older than she is, who didn’t know all the letters yet. You know Flutter is way beyond that now, so I thought she could help this girl along. So I reminded her to be polite, and I went to help the older group of readers. And, the next thing I know, there’s screaming. I jumped up and ran back, and Flutter had the girl in a headlock.”

____

Ezra cleared his throat. “Now, when you say ‘headlock,’ do you actually mean a half nelson, or…”

____

Cee’s voice trembled, and Ezra honestly couldn’t tell if she was on the verge of laughing or crying. “I said, ‘Flutter! What are you doing? Stop that! What happened to being nice?’ and she said, ‘I _am_ being nice, Mama, or I would have used the full nelson!’” Cee gave a little wail and buried her face in Ezra’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her. Still he couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying—maybe a little of both.

____

He knew perfectly well whose fault it was that Flutter had misbehaved—he had taught her about wrestling, after all—but he kept silent on that point. No need to incriminate himself further. “What brought all this on?”

____

“I’m not sure,” Cee said, still clinging to Ezra. “She said it was because the other girl said Flutter’s dad didn’t have a magic arm and Flutter said he _did_.”

____

It was entirely Ezra’s fault then. “How long were you gone?”

____

“It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. I had to literally haul Flutter off this other girl, and Glin had to smooth everything over and it was so _humiliating,_ Ezra. I don’t know if anyone will ever want our materials again after that fiasco.”

____

“I have more faith in you and Glin than that,” Ezra said, rubbing her back again.

____

“I took Flutter aside, of course, and tried to pry the story out of her, but all she would say is that no one was going to perpetuate libel about her papa’s arm.” Cee sat up. “I don’t know what that was about, but I told her it was _not_ okay to attack people and I made her sit by herself until the session was done, and then I made her apologize for _tackling_ the girl at least.” She sighed deeply. “It sounded terribly insincere, so that was probably wrong too. I wish you’d been there, Ezra. You’d have known what to do.”

____

Ezra looked into Cee’s face, and she was not joking. She was dead serious.

____

“Cee…,” he said helplessly. This was absurd. There were a hundred ways she nurtured, guided, and loved those kids as he could never do.

____

“I don’t know how to handle her, Ezra. I’m a terrible mother. She should just have you as a parent.”

____

This had to stop. “Cee,” Ezra said firmly, “you know if it was just me, she would be nothin’ less than a barbarian. She’d eat with her toes and howl at the moon.”

____

Cee’s dimples appeared. “She does howl at the moon.”

____

“It was a singular occasion,” Ezra said, waving his hand. “We were impersonatin’ a wolf-pack, and that’s what wolf-packs do.”

__Cee leaned against Ezra again. “Why would she say your prosthetic arm is magic?”_ _

____

“I didn’t tell her that,” he said hastily. He thought for a moment. “Well, Cee, you know how it is. Sometimes you’re talkin’ and maybe braggin’, and you start to half believe that what you’re sayin’ is actually true. And then if somebody calls you on it…it’s real hard to back down, because your pride says it is _sort of_ true…”

____

Cee sighed. “No, Ezra, I don’t know how that is. And that’s why you’re a good father, and I’m a terrible mother.”

____

This was just so many kinds of wrong that Ezra couldn’t even wrap his mind around it. And certainly he couldn’t manage to talk her out of it tonight…so he went for the time-honored tactic of distraction. He pulled her down beside him. “Now let me remind you,” he said, punctuating each instance with a series of kisses, “of all the times you have been a wonderful mother, and a wonderful person, and a wonderful wife…”

____

But even though Ezra gifted Cee with his most generous efforts and she reciprocated in equal measure, her worries were tenacious. When she was snuggled up against Ezra afterwards with her head tucked under his chin, she said, sleepily, “I wish my mother had lived just a little longer. Then at least I’d have remembered what she did, even if I couldn’t have asked her for advice about my own children.”

____

This task was beyond Ezra’s ken. He needed help. 

____

He forced himself to stay awake until her breathing deepened in sleep, then slipped out of bed. He sent a message to Carr saying he wouldn’t be in to work the next day, and then he sent the message that called in the big guns.

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

The doorbell rang much earlier than it had any right to. Ezra clambered out of bed, forgetting his prosthesis, to answer it before it woke up the entire house. Cee had already been up once with the baby, and if she could just get a little more sleep… Too late. On his way to the door he heard Beck’s startled crying.

____

He opened the door. The housecleaning team-turned-his-friends-for-life stood there. The grandmother patted his cheek but the other three pushed past him and went straight for the sound of the crying baby. He started to follow, but the grandmother stopped him. “They will take care of him,” she said. She pulled Ezra to the living room couch. 

____

“Now. Sit. Tell me all about how we can help our Cee.”

____

The _our_ warmed his heart. The others came out with the baby, fussing and cooing over him. Ezra had just finished explaining things to the grandmother when Flutter too came stumbling into the living room, bleary-eyed, looking exactly like a dark-eyed, dark-haired Cee-in-the-morning. The moment she saw Ki, she suddenly awoke and shrieked and jumped and hugged her friend.

____

More screaming was not the way he’d have chosen to wake Cee after her ordeal, but she too came into the room, looking only slightly alive. The women gathered around her.

____

“We are here to take you away for a girls’ day out!” the mother announced.

____

Cee’s face crumpled and all the women enveloped her in a hug. 

____

“We are going to the salon,” the mother said.

____

“And shopping,” the granddaughter said.

____

“And of course out to eat,” the grandmother said. “No boys allowed.”

____

“Oh, not even this one?” Cee pleaded after Beck had lunged out of the granddaughter’s arms into hers and she kissed his fuzzy head.

____

“No. But you can feed him first,” the mother said. “Just wook at the widdle man, he’s starving!”

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

Ezra held the baby in his arm while the women hustled his wife out the door. She paused to blow them kisses with both hands before she was chivvied out to the street.

____

“What are your preferences for breakfast?” Ezra asked the girls. “Your choices are jav and sausages.” He lowered the baby into his pen and waited for their answer. 

____

“Papa! We’re not allowed to have jav,” Flutter said, climbing up onto a stool beside Ki. “But I’ll try it if you want…” 

____

“Sausages it is then.” 

____

“Can we go to the park today, Papa?” Flutter asked when they’d finished their breakfast.

____

Ezra sighed. He’d been afraid they’d ask to go somewhere. But he knew how hard it was for Flutter to stay confined all day. “All right. A little later. Flutter, come with me. I could use your help.”

____

He didn’t particularly want Ki in on this, so he asked the older girl to watch Beck while Flutter followed him back to the bedroom. He wrangled his shirt off and picked up the prosthesis. “You know this is just a piece of medical machinery, right, Flutter?” 

____

She nodded.

____

“Can you help me with this? Put this strap around here like this. Good. Can you tell how that fits in here, on the stump? Good girl.” He finished the rest himself. “See, Flutter?” He flexed his artificial hand. “No magic.”

____

She looked a little abashed but did not explain her actions from the previous day. Maybe he’d have to let things settle in for a bit.

____

“Papa…how’d you get that big scar on your tummy?” she asked, before he managed to get a clean shirt on.

____

“The one just below my ribs?”

____

She nodded.

____

“That’s a Brave One story for a later time.”

____

“For tonight?”

____

He knelt down in front of her and held her eyes. “No, Flutter. For maybe five years from now. It’s not a nice story at all. It’s about how assaultin’ people is not only not okay, but very dangerous. Believe me, I know from experience.”

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

It was not an easy undertaking to escort three kids to the park for a few hours. It required roughly the same amount of equipment as he’d needed to survive on a hostile moon with a poisonous atmosphere for months on end. But finally he had everything packed up and stashed in the baby buggy and they were out the door. They had only one false start when he realized Flutter was still in her pajamas. He paused, looking at her, opened his mouth to say something, and then thought better of it. She was decently covered up and Cee would never know.

____

But it was too late. The pause had drawn Ki’s attention to Flutter’s clothing, and if Ki thought Flutter should be wearing clothes, Flutter would wear clothes, whether it took her twenty minutes to get dressed or not.

____

By now Beck was starting to whimper. He was probably hungry again, but Ezra pushed on toward the park, hoping the motion of the buggy would lull Beck to sleep. No such luck. By the time they arrived, he was in full wail. Ezra found a shady spot and sent the girls off, reminding them to stay where he could see them. Then he finally got Beck’s bottle ready and fed him.

____

“I am completely cognizant of the fact that your belly was full to burstin’ just two hours ago, mister,” he said.

____

Beck, tears still standing in his eyes, concentrated solely on gulping milk. Ezra got a few glances and side-eyes sitting there feeding a cute baby. He remembered those from when Flutter was tiny. He knew, however, that those glances would change once two very loud and boisterous girls were seen to also be part of the deal. 

____

Speaking of Flutter and Ki, Ezra realized he couldn’t see them anywhere. Beck had finished his bottle, so Ezra put him up to his shoulder and stood. Walking around looking for the girls would probably coax a few burps out of Beck anyway. Oh, there they were, just coming around from behind a tree. He sat down again with a sigh of relief. He was exhausted already and it was still morning.

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

“Papa, why didn’t you pack any babao fruit?”

____

“Your mama didn’t have any cut up,” Ezra said. He’d actually remembered to pack a blanket for them to eat lunch on but did that count for anything? No.

____

“I like babao fruit,” Flutter went on.

____

“I thought you preferred cupcakes,” Ezra countered.

____

“I want to show Ki how to die from it.”

____

“Well, when we get home, you can die there,” Ezra said. That earned him one of the _other_ kind of glances from a passerby. Ezra gave her his falsest smile in return.

____

Beck was lying on his stomach on the blanket. He was very interested in the food items laid out in front of him. Ki was wise enough to keep her lunch away from him, but Flutter kept on leaving her things within his reach. 

____

Ezra had already fished a cupcake wrapper out of his mouth and was currently prying a small carrot out of his fist. Finally he picked the baby up and let him pretend to stand for a while.

____

“Beck is so cute,” Ki said, tickling his tummy.

____

“Beck got everything _he_ wanted for lunch,” Flutter said, pouting.

____

“Did I ever tell you about the time—”

____

“Let’s go play jump rope, Ki!” Flutter said, scrambling to her feet.

____

Well, that stung. It stung quite a lot.

____

“All right, mister,” Ezra said to Beck, snuggling him against his chest. “No growin’ up and runnin’ off for you. Perpetual infancy is the state we’re goin’ for, got it?”

____

Beck gave a contented sigh. Ezra would let him have a little catnap now, and maybe he’d still take a good long nap when they got home.

____

“Papa! Papa!” Flutter shrieked. Beck startled and woke up. 

____

“Look, look, Papa!” Flutter and Ki barreled toward them, something held in Flutter’s hands. It was not the jump ropes, but a wilted weed.

____

“Look at this flower, Papa! Oh please can we take it home and make it grow again? Please please please?”

____

Beck made a lunge for the weed and Ezra had to haul him back onto his lap.

____

“It’s got its root ball and a little bit of dirt still on it,” Ki said hopefully.

____

“Please please please, Papa!”

____

“It looks nigh unto dead,” Ezra said. It was a lame argument and they all knew it.

____

“It’s alive, Papa! It needs us to take care of it.”

____

Two sets of big brown eyes gazed at him pleadingly. 

____

If Cee were here, she would have saved him. She’d already rescued him, he recalled, from Flutter’s pleas for a family of mice, a dead bird, and bush of poisonous berries. But here he was, defenseless, rapidly losing ground. There were _two_ of them. He was hopelessly outnumbered.

____

“It has to be your full responsibility,” Ezra said sternly. “No palmin’ it off on your mama. You take care of it. And go find where you put the jump ropes.” 

____

“Oh yes, Papa!” Flutter squealed. She and Ki did a victory dance. Ezra was pretty sure she hadn’t heard a word of his finest parental admonitions.

____

He sighed and put the baby down on the blanket and began to pack up. At least she and Ki would keep themselves occupied until Cee came home.

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

It had been Ki’s idea to dig up some dirt from the park and put the weed in one of the empty lunch containers, and she’d even watered the thing from one of the fountains. Now that they were home, she and Flutter had found an empty pot in the back garden and had lovingly transplanted it, without asking for aid, while he fed the baby again. They had moved a side table in front of the glass doors so it would get the proper light, and had begun to compose a celebratory song in its honor, again without reference to him. Maybe he would escape from this unscathed, other than having to look at the thing now occupying his living room.

____

He knew if he put Beck in his cradle he’d probably fall right to sleep. But a child needed a story before he went to bed—that’s just how things should work. So Ezra changed his nappy and sat down with him in the rocker next to the pile of books on the table. But he’d forgotten his specs. Where had he last had them? Kevva help, he was getting old…

____

Oh, there his specs were, right on the table where he’d left them yesterday. He put them on and smiled at Beck, who was waiting patiently if sleepily. The baby smiled back, but he was too tired to even wiggle much.

____

“All right, mister, how about this book? It’s got fast ships _and_ fuzzy animals. A win-win by any reckonin’.”

____

“Hoo,” said Beck.

____

“Your vote of confidence is noted and appreciated. We shall begin. _Once upon a time…_ ”

____

He loved the way Beck seemed so absorbed in books he probably didn’t even grasp the half of. Even though she had taught herself to read, Flutter had little time for printed stories, but Beck drank them in. But despite his best endeavors to stay awake, Beck’s little eyelids were drooping, and Ezra made his voice just a tad softer. 

____

Of course, that made it easier to hear the girls in the living room. By the thumps and rattlings, they had added a dance to their weed celebration. He supposed if it devolved into blood sacrifice, he’d have to put his foot down.

____

Beck’s eyes were finally closed, and Ezra should put him into the cradle. But why? Flutter and Ki were safe right down the hall, and he had the whole day off. Why not spend some time just holding his son? Besides, it was like a sanctuary in here. He eased out the footrest on the chair and settled back and closed his own eyes. The baby sighed in his sleep, and Ezra rested his cheek against his dark fuzzy head.

____

The next thing he knew there was a commotion in the living room…sounded like Cee and her posse were home. Blinking himself awake, he carefully climbed out of the chair and laid Beck gently in the cradle before slipping out the door.

____

The women turned to him as one as he came into the room, and parted to reveal Cee in the middle, smiling at him. 

____

“Just look at her!” the granddaughter said, gently turning Cee around in a circle and then beaming from ear to ear. It occurred to Ezra for the first time that the granddaughter was likely younger than Cee.

____

“What do you think, Ezra?” Cee asked, beaming.

____

He put his specs on top of his head so he could see her better. She looked exactly the same to him, just maybe a little more…polished? But she was definitely looking radiant with happiness.

____

“You look lovely, Cee,” he said. 

____

Apparently it was the right thing to say (with the added advantage of being the truth), because she walked straight into his arms. “Thank you, Ezra. I know this was all your idea.”

____

“Well, not all of it,” he said, winking at the women, who were all looking very satisfied with themselves.

____

“Hi, Mama!” Flutter said, racing into the room with Ki. “We’re making a carpet for the flower.”

____

“Oh, you have a flower? _Inside_?” Cee asked, with a glance up at Ezra.

____

“It is a weed,” Ezra said.

____

“It’s a flower, Mama, and we’re making a home for it, see? If you’re done hugging Papa _again_ , you can come see it.”

____

Ezra reluctantly released Cee as she said, “I have an idea for the flower’s home. Maybe _not_ the new white towels for a carpet… Come here, girls, I’ll show you.”

____

“Your dress is so pretty, Mama. And your eyelashes look so long. Can we make my eyelashes long?...”

____

Ezra was still wondering what else a six-year-old had noticed that he hadn’t when Cee and the girls came back into the room with a silk scarf and a set of fairy lights. All six of them gathered around the weed shrine as Flutter and Ki tucked it into place at the base of the pot. 

____

“It’s perfect, Mama,” Flutter whispered, clinging to Cee’s hand.

____

“You’ll have to remember to take care of it and water it every day,” Cee said. “Not too much. Just a little bit. Your papa can help you.” She gave Ezra a look of pure mischief that would have intrigued him very much if it hadn’t been tantamount to a stab of betrayal.

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

Ezra managed to maintain his indignant coldness all the way through the rest of the day. He finished the washing up after dinner long before Cee was done putting Beck and Flutter to bed. He got his book out to read, but sitting under the light put him right in the line of sight with the Temple of the Weed. He snapped the book shut and took it into the bedroom. But once he sat down, he got so sleepy he figured he might as well get ready for bed. It would serve Cee right if he was fast asleep when she came in.

____

He was settled into bed with his wet hair and his book and his specs, seething over how she had rubbed that _weed_ in his face, but it sure was taking her a long time to come in so he could prove he was completely indifferent to her apologetic wiles. He strained his ears and heard her peek in on Beck in the nursery before she breezed into their room. 

____

“Oh, I’m glad you’re still up,” she said. “I’m going to take a quick shower and then I want to talk to you.”

____

Ezra opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind about the plant but she was already in the bathroom and the sound of the water came on. He scowled at his book, realized he hadn’t read more than one paragraph the whole evening, and slammed it shut before tossing it onto the bedside table. The specs landed on top.

____

She did take a short shower and she came out looking—what was she _wearing?_ That had to be something she’d bought today because he was 100 percent sure he’d have noticed _that_ before. She slipped into bed, tucked herself under his good arm, and wrapped her arms around him. She smelled _amazing_.

____

“Thank you so much for calling in the girls today, Ezra.” She smiled up and him and started lazily curling his hair around the fingers of one hand. “They were so kind to me about Flutter. They gave me good advice—not condescending at all—and told me to call them anytime. It was a perfect day with them. Like having a real family, two comforting moms and a sister. You are a _very_ good husband.” She nuzzled his ear. “Oh, and it means so much to Flutter—I hope you weren’t mad about helping her with the plant, Ezra.”

____

But Ezra was no longer interested in discussing plants.

____

__  
_ _

__  
_ _

And yet for nearly a week, it was nothing but singing to the plant, dancing around the plant, “Papa, can we water the flower?” “Mama, does it have enough sunshine?” “Can Ki come over to visit the flower?” Just because he was resigned to having the weed in his house didn’t mean he had to _like_ it. Ezra was glad to be able to escape to work. Carr, at least, did not center his day around fostering weeds.

____

When Ezra woke on his day off, Cee wasn’t in bed. It was her turn to be up with Beck—he’d been fussy and drooling like a mad dog, and it appeared he was cutting an early tooth. Ezra got out of bed and put on his arm and went to listen at the nursery door. Inside Cee was singing quietly, so maybe Beck had quieted down and was nodding off. Ezra went out to the kitchen and started a pot of jav brewing, then went into the bathroom to scrape off the latest crop of whiskers. He was just finishing up with that last tricky spot under his chin when the screaming started.

____

He dropped the razor and sprinted out into the living room and picked Flutter up, his heart pounding. He didn’t see any blood. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

____

“No, Papa!” she gasped, struggling to get out of his hold. “It’s the flower!”

____

“It’s the flower,” he repeated in a perfectly level tone, keeping a tight rein on his temper.

____

“Yes, Papa!” She danced around hugging herself, and then, as Cee rushed in holding Beck, both equally wide-eyed, she shrieked, “Look, Mama! It _is_ a flower, a flower, a flower!” She gave an ecstatic jump and then turned back to Ezra. She beckoned him to lean down and then cupped his face in her hands. “Look, Papa!” she aimed his head toward the weed. _“Look!”_ she whispered. 

____

So Ezra looked, and there, in fact, was not only a new green sprout coming from the base of the plant, but also a small bud forming at the top of the original stalk.

____

“See, Papa?” she whispered. She hugged him swiftly and turned to Cee. “Do you see, Mama?”

____

“I see it, sweetheart.”

____

“Can I show Beck, please, Mama? It’s _important._ ”

____

“All right.” Cee knelt down with the baby beside the table with the plant.

____

“I want to hold him.”

____

“Okay. Be very careful.” Cee arranged Beck in Flutter’s arms. Beck looked alarmed.

____

“Listen, Baby,” Flutter whispered. “This is _important_ to our family. This is our plant. Look, see the bloom coming?” She pointed. Beck looked up into her face instead, fascinated. 

____

“Some people thought our flower was a weed,” she told him. “But it just _seemed_ that way. It was lonely and uprooted and half dead.” 

____

She was still whispering reverently. “And then we gave it soil to put down roots and made a home for it and gave it _a lot_ of love and look at our flower growing and living now! Look how much it’s giving back to us! It’s _beautiful_!”

____

Ezra met Cee’s eyes over the children’s heads. Her lips were trembling but she managed a smile. 

____

Flutter turned to Ezra. “See, Papa! I _told_ you! It needed all that love! The flower was worth it!”

____

Ezra pulled Flutter and Beck into a hug. The baby, who was none too sure about Flutter, reached for Ezra to pick him up. “Well now, it seems you were right all along, Flutter,” he said, holding the little boy close. His eyes were wet but he looked at his Cee, beautiful through and through, and smiled back at her. “That’s just exactly how it works.”

____

  


  


  


  


**Author's Note:**

> @alwaysupatnight...it's not a houseplant, exactly, and Ezra doesn't exactly take care of it, but here's your idea... ;)


End file.
